Underground Gryffindor
by Rae Carson
Summary: Peter Pettigrew's side of the story was never told. Just how did he become the Weasley's pet rat?
1. Pettigrew's Punishment

Dear Readers,

I have a friend who came up with a story and I am writing it because the idea of Peter Pettigrew's redemption fascinated me. Her name is DIsForDisney on this site. I felt inspired with the plot bunnies this story has given me, so I will write it for her. Thank you for reading.

Rae Carson

* * *

Peter Pettigrew knocked on the door of the Potter's home. Thankfully, James answered. Peter could tell that Lily was upstairs with the baby, as he had seen them in the upstairs window when he approached the cottage. _And now both of them are in danger because of me…_

Immediately, James could tell something was wrong. "What is it, Petey?" he asked his friend, with concern in his voice. Peter felt even guiltier than ever now. He gulped and looked at the floor.

"I've d-done…s-something…h-horrible," Peter began, tears already threatening to fall.

James attempted to look into Peter's eyes, but Peter continued to stare at the floor. He knew if he looked into James's eyes, he would totally fall apart.

"The—the D-dark Lord—him-himself c-came to m-me," Peter stuttered.

James's eyes grew huge and he put his hands on Peter's shoulders. "How on earth did you manage to walk away, Peter?" he asked incredulously.

"I—I t-told him w-where you were," he whispered.

James fingers dug into Peter's flesh. "You WHAT?" he roared. Now he shook Peter down to his bones. "How could you possibly DO SUCH A THING?"

"James," called Lily from upstairs. The baby was now crying at the sound of James's raised voice. "What is wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong, love," James called to her, his hands still in an iron grip around Peter's shoulders. "Please calm the baby."

"How could you break the secret?" James hissed at Peter. He finally let go of his shoulders, and started pacing back and forth. "Is he due to come here?" he demanded.

"Any minute," Peter muttered, massaging the areas on his shoulders where James's fingers had dug in.

"Get out of my house," James said with unmistakable coldness.

"I was hoping…I could come here to help—" Peter said, holding up his hands.

"I said get out," James repeated. "You've done far too much damage as it is."

"No, wait!" Peter cried, as James began shoving him out the door, "Please don't…"

"What is it?" James growled.

"I…I have a feeling…y-you won't make it tonight," he said with as much calm as he could muster. "A—and if that happens…I'll try to make this right. Somehow."

His words gave James pause and Peter knew why. Never before had Peter had backbone enough to stand up to any one of the Marauders.

"If that actually happens—which will be _your fault—_then yes, it is your job to watch over Harry," James agreed. "Now find Sirius and send him here."


	2. Finding Sirius

There was no way in hell that Peter would be able to face Sirius, if James's reaction was any indication. After the initial shock of Peter's confession, James had nearly punched him in the face. Peter had only seen James that angry a handful of times, and none of them had ever happened after he had married Lily. None of them until that night, that is. And once Sirius found out, he would likely kill Peter…or worse. So out of desperation, Peter went to tell Severus Snape instead.

Peter cursed his inability to conjure a Patronus. This would be so much easier if he could do so. That way, he could just pop off a message to Sirius telling him to go to the Potters and that would be the end of it.

Peter had to try to meet Snape on somewhat-neutral ground so Snape could hopefully tell Sirius to head for Godric's Hollow.

He knew there was no time to waste; Peter knew that Snape was no lover of James or Sirius, but he did know that Snape and Lily had been friends some time during their youths.

Peter went to the usual haunts where the Death Eaters could be found, but Snape was nowhere in sight. At least not until Peter found him at the Dark Lord's quarters in Little Hangleton. _So much for meeting him on neutral ground_, Peter thought darkly.

"I-I am in need of y- your service," Peter said to the man as he bowed deeply. When he had attended Hogwarts, Peter never thought he would ever be subservient to the likes of Severus Snape, but times had definitely changed. He would do whatever it took for Snape to go tell Sirius to head for Godric's Hollow.

Severus simply stood over him, looking at him, bidding him to tell him more. Peter tried again.

"I n-need you—to tell, tell S-Sirius Black—to go—to G-godric's Hollow," he stammered, cursing the shake in his voice.

"And why would I wish to do such a thing?" Severus questioned disdainfully.

"The Dark Lord is on h-his way there," Peter reported, in his most steady sentence yet.

"WHAT!" screamed Snape. Suddenly, he yanked Peter up by the chin, forcing him to look in his face. Severus slapped him across the mouth. "WHAT DID YOU SAY!"

Peter swallowed in shame and fear and confusion. He had no idea that Snape would have such a violent reaction to a small request. He was, after all, the Dark Lord's most faithful servant…

"I—I said—th-that the Dark L-lord is—g-going to k-kill—the P-P-Potters," he ground out.

At that, Severus threw him to the floor and stalked out the door.


	3. Wormtail's Whereabouts

Peter was terrified. He was terrified of Snape, terrified of Sirius, and terrified of James and what the Dark Lord had probably done to the Potters by now. Peter knew he had to hide, and he had to hide quickly. But first, he needed to pick up an Invisibility Cloak from Knockturn Alley. He knew the dark shops attracted only the most questionable of clientele, and that the shops were often open until the wee hours of the morning instead of during daylight hours.

Although the Invisibility Cloak he would pick up only worked with Dark magic, and it wasn't a true Invisibility Cloak, it would at least hide him from most of the Death Eaters.

Peter skulked down Diagon Alley in the shadows, throwing his traveling cloak over his head. He didn't want anybody to see he was there. He had the feeling he was being watched. Peter picked up his pace and began to round the corner to Knockturn Alley.

He walked into Bourgin and Burkes, as they were known for selling Dark objects, and they had just what Peter was looking for—a cloak to cover him. Burke instructed him on his to use the thing, and Peter was soon on his way.

As soon as he walked out of Knockturn Alley, a spell flew over his head.

"How dare you!" shouted a voice from the darkness. Peter could tell it was Sirius. How had Sirius found him?

Peter went to throw his new cloak about his shoulders, but Sirius burned it to cinders, "INCENDIO!" he shouted.

Peter ran for his life. He barely managed to draw his wand as he dashed through Diagon Alley.

"You can't get away from me!" Sirius shouted with laughter. "You won't get away from your Dark Lord, either! At last you will get what you deserve! Punishment! CRUCIO!" Sirius shouted.

Peter blocked that spell by whispering, "Protego!" over his shoulder. He continued to run and dodge spells every which way. Sirius was not giving him an inch, would not let him explain himself, would allow nothing. Not that Peter had expected as much. And Sirius had never used an Unforgivable Curse on one of his friends before. Then again, one of his friends had never betrayed anyone enough to result in three people's death's before either…

"James and Lily are dead," shouted Sirius, "THEY'RE DEAD!" He laughed aloud again. "And it's your fault! You can't run forever!" Peter's heart sank. So he had been right. James hadn't made it that night. So…that meant that somehow…he had to care for baby Harry…

"CRUCIO!" _Forget baby Harry ,_thought Peter, _I have to save my own life first._ At that point in his life, he had never felt so much resentment for Sirius. Tears began pouring down his cheeks. Peter had always lived in the large shadows of James and Sirius. The only ones who were truly kind to him were Remus and Lily. _And now Lily's dead because of you,_ thought Peter, as he dashed through the Leaky Cauldron. He was getting short of breath. His heart was hammering in his ears. He made one last dash through the tavern until Sirius cornered him outside on the middle of the crowded street. _But it's not my fault, _Peter thought desperately, _I only became Secret-Keeper because Sirius wanted me to. I said no, they know I'm not brave, but they did it anyway!_ At that point, Peter finally realized he had enough of Sirius Black and his bullying.

"It's _your_ fault they're dead," Peter protested loudly, in front of everyone, Muggles and all, "James and Lily Potter were killed because of _you." _He took a deep breath and continued, "The Secret-Keeper thing was _your_ idea."

A deadly-looking bolt of energy shot forth out of Sirius's wand and Peter hit the street.

Peter held his wand behind him, and threw the most powerful and darkest spell he had ever known at the building behind his back. There was a large explosion. He then shrank down to his Animagus self. But part of the spell caught his pinky finger, and by this point nobody could hear Peter's scream, because he was a rat who simply squeaked for all he was worth. Sirius was also laughing his fool head off and he had collapsed to the street. And still Wormtail ran, ran because his life depended on it.

Wormtail scampered away back through the Leaky Cauldron and hid himself within the confines of the Magical Menagerie, where he could hide forever amongst the other real animals. Nobody would find him there.


	4. Family Pet

Wormtail crawled around the floors of the Magical Menagerie until early the next morning. He had heard many wizards running around, searching forSirius Black—a few had even entered some of the shops at Diagon Alley, looking for him. Luckily, it didn't seem as if anybody were looking for Peter Pettigrew.

A female staff member of the shop screamed when she saw Wormtail. He went to run from her out of sheer shock, but suddenly, he felt himself whacked over the top of a head with a very heavy brush broom. And after that, Wormtail was shoved into a rickety old cage at the back of the shop. Apparently, they weren't in the business of selling rats.

Several hours later, a young ginger-haired boy walked into the shop, followed by several other boys who shared the same hair color. Being the tallest, the first boy was quite obviously the eldest of the children. There were two identical boys, who looked to be about 5 years old, and they were making the most rucus. The shopkeeper was having a devil of a time trying to stop them from breaking everything. And one of the boys, just older than his twin brothers, was trying to help the shopkeeper.

"Fred and George," the boy hissed, "you need to behave!"

"And who's going to make us? You, Percy?" said the boy named Fred.

"You're not the boss of us!" continued the boy named George.

A very harassed-looking woman, also with red hair, walked into the shop. She had another small boy on her hip and looked to be pregnant again.

"Come along, boys," she said tiredly. "We can't afford anything in here." Wormtail had counted six children…which meant the woman had to be pregnant with her seventh.

"Bill," said one of the boys to the eldest one, "look in here," and they walked up to the cage in which Wormtail was now sitting.

"What is it, Charlie?" said Bill.

"Look! It's a rat! He doesn't look very happy," said Charlie. Bill smiled at his brother.

"That's just like you, thinking of the animals," Bill said. "I wonder why he's back here…" and both boys reached their fingers in through the cage. Charlie had what was left of his chocolate frog and he fed it to Wormtail. Wormtail immediately came to the edge of the cage and ate greedily. He was indeed starving. Wormtail found himself trying to look as appealing as possible to those young red-haired boys. After all, they could be his ticket out of here.

"Boys," said their mother, coming up behind them, "you know we can't afford anything in here. Ew!" she said, upon seeing the rat. "Get away from that thing!" The child on her hip had started crying as she had yelled about Wormtail.

"Oh, but can't we buy this rat, Mum?" Charlie pleaded. "He's so hungry, and he's all alone back here," said the boy sadly. At this, Wormtail tried to look as pathetic as possible—which wasn't difficult, considering he was a hungry and scared rat.

"No!" exclaimed their mother. "I don't want a smelly old rat around the baby!" At this, Charlie picked up the cage and showed the rat to his baby brother.

"Here, ickle Ronniekens," said Charlie, "the rat won't hurt you. He's a nice rat," At that, Ronnie's little eyes widened hugely and he stared at the cage. The little baby had begun to calm down. He reached out his fat little hands for the cage. Wormtail tried to look as non-threaning as possible and sniffed the baby's fingertips. Ronnie laughed. "See, Mum?" said Charlie. "Ronnie loves him!"

"The last thing we need is another mouth to feed!" yelled their mother.

"But Bill and I promise to feed hi m, don't we, Bill?" said Charlie, turning to his oldest brother. Bill nodded vehemently.

"We all do!" said Percy, who had walked in on the exchange. "I'll help too, Mum! Bill can bring the rat to school with him, when he goes to Hogwarts next fall," he said reasonably.

"We're getting a rat! We're getting a rat!" Fred and George chanted together.

The mother stared around at all of her boys. "This is the first time all of you have ever agreed on anything," she said, clearly surprised. "Very well, anything to get us out of here," she mumbled to herself. "But only if you promise to take care of him," she admonished.

"We promise!" all of her five boys shouted. Even baby Ronnie smiled and gurgled happily.

The woman turned to the shopkeeper. "How much for the rat?" she asked, taking out her meager purse.

The shopkeeper stared at her for a bit, as if she were a little bit crazy, but then he said, "For you and your boys, it's free," and he smiled kindly. "You're doing me a favor by taking that rat from my shop. And to show my gratitude, I'll also give you one of these," he said, handing Bill a bag of feed.

"Hooray! A rat for free!" All of the boys ran around the shop, nearly insane with happiness. Little Ronnie flapped his arms with unrestrained glee.

And so Wormtail began his life as the Weasley's family pet.


End file.
